Shut Up, Dude: This Week’s Best And Worst Comments

This week Fiona Apple unveiled a 23-word album title, Lil B dropped a 34-track mix tape, and Bradord Cox played “My Sharona” for 60 minutes. So much for brevity. But I’m glad that’s all out of the way, since SXSW will find our attention spans under fire. If not UNDER WATER! (Sorry.) If you still haven’t RSVP’d to our Thursday night Range Life party, blah blah blah blah do that HERE. And if you’re not going to Austin (most of you) don’t worry, we will be covering all the non-SXSW news that’s fit to blog. If there is any. But first, it’s time to check out who made the most clever and the most unpopular comments over the past seven days…

One of my fondest memories is driving to from Austin to Dallas around midnight, nothing except pitch-blackness all around, singing along with Teen Dream as I plunged into the void; it was the closest thing my little atheist self has had to a religious experience. If this song is any indication, I’ve got another religious experience on my hands.

If you don’t think the film industry wants Hunger Games to be the “next twilight” you should google “Hunger Game Twilight”. You will be amazed, I have a feeling.

Sure it is not quite so devoid of intelligence as Twilight, but its still a young adult book series getting an absurd praise for a very unoriginal story. People talk about it like its the next LOTR or something. Its not even on the same level of Harry Potter.

well S’gum world, you’ve been trying to believe this guy was a genius for a couple years now, and ya know, i think you finally won me over for that was NOT the most bush league idiotic crap i’ve seen in my life, nope, not at all…total opposite:) (cough)

Sufjan is my hero. I mean, look at this guy. He has so much obvious talent and natural ability. He could easily have pursued the course of becoming a household name super star. I mean, he peaked above those waves with “Chicago” and it would have been effortless for him to just keep making “Chicago” type songs that are loved by a large swath of people all at once. I mean the guy still has his every move tracked by blogs, magazines, and fans even years between putting out music, and it almost seems like he purposely avoids that fame. He could have it if he ever wanted it.

But no, instead he spends his time doing things like this, and things like the whole s/s/s album. Jump beyond the fact that this song is amazing for a moment. But it’s really just a remix of the Rosie Thomas song off of her album With Love. That was really her only contribution (It’s a good song and a great album check it out). This is Sufjan’s work. But he doesn’t present it as some kindof remix. He calls it a collaboration, and he releases it with one of his original songs on the back side of it and then puts her name above his on the cover. Seriously. Sufjan is using his talent to share recognition with his friends. Look at the s/s/s stuff now. Sufjan contributed some vocals, and rides along with some of his friends over at Anticon. Suddenly blogs are blowing up all over the web talking about Sufjan but indirectly name dropping Sun Lux and Serengeti, Anticon and Doseone. These are artist worthy of recognition, massive talents, but they don’t have even a fraction of the fan base Sufjan has. So, instead of going out and making his next big music hall-of-fame clinching opus, he wanders over and contributes, and acknowledges that there are areas of music that he wants to understand more, and people that he respects that are good at it.

Sufjan is more than just someone that has a talent in music. He /gets/ it. He understands how great and important music is, while simultaneously also seeing how small and insignificant it is. Music is not a competition that should somehow draw people apart, or into factions. Music is, by it’s very nature, something that should draw people together. In a music world where everything is increasingly rated and compared like some kindof sport, we need people like Sufjan to show us that there is a better way to approach music.

Comments (24)

You do not talk bring up the derivative-ness of Hunger Games, you do not brag about Radiohead tickets, you absolutely do not put bricks on Danzig’s lawn, you do not suggest Goblin is a timeless classic, you simply do not use the word pretentious unless you are applying it correctly, and absolutely you do not utter anything mindlessly positive NOR anything negative-and-misogynistic of the lady whose name rhymes with Banana Bell Bay. These are the rules. They are enforced only by thumbs.

I appreciate the support, but yeah, that fight is a loser. I really have no choice but retreat back under my bridge and lick my wounds, at least until the movie comes out and we hear what the reviewers think. You hear me Hunger Games!? This war is not over!

First off, I wanna thank everybody in my hood: my wife, my kids, my family, everything. Definitely wanna thank my doctor –– my psychiatrist –– she really helped me relax a lot. I knocked down that three just like you told me! And my single coming out, I got a single called “Champion,” I did a song called “Champion” last June! And the single is coming out!

We are terrorists. As Stereogum commenters, our job is simply to to sodomize mediocrity. We are terrified and horrified and shocked that anyone would mention Skrillex in any article related to us…

On a sidenote: Hey everyone, don’t forget — This Sunday, is 3/11 Day 2012! I’m pretty sure Scott and the rest of the Stereogum crew are heading down south a few days early before they make their way into Austin for a slight detour in Vegas:

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